Drunken Klaus iPhone review

You know how drunk people are really annoying at the best of times, but even more so when you’re sober? Well, Drunken Klaus is pretty much the gaming equivalent of that.

In Drunken Klaus you’re tasked with guiding our holidaying protagonist – who is, as the title suggests, (a) drunk, and (b) called Klaus – along a pier in the Caribbean and back to bed. Klaus has had more than his fair share of rum, so he’s all over the shop.

You control Klaus with the accelerometer, tilting left and right to keep him from falling into the water, and occasionally tapping the screen to jump when you come across an obstacle.

It’s difficult to say how well the accelerometer controls work, since the whole point is that Klaus is completely legless. Typically, you’ll find that a game lasts only a few seconds. As soon as Klaus starts teetering, it’s all over. He also seems to have a tendency for skidding along invisible black ice after jumping. Weird.

Along the pier, there are energy drinks that help Klaus sober up, bottles of rum that are best avoided, and fish that cause Klaus to fall on his back. Hi-larious.

To be fair to developers Root9, I doubt they were ever under the illusion that they were creating a masterpiece. It’s the kind of game that people will install, play once and have a chuckle at, then never go back to. Fair enough.

Drunken Klaus is the sequel to Klaus, which has reportedly been downloaded over 750,000 times, probably because it’s free. As such, if Drunken Klaus sounds like your cup of tea (or rum *guffaw*), save yourself 59p and get the original free version. It’s much the same.

Pros

Erm

Uhm

Hmm

Cons

Not much going on

Not funny

Costs 59p

Summary: Drunken Klaus is the kind of game a vague acquaintance insists on showing you, claiming that it’s “hilarious” and forcing you to feign amusement. “Yeah, that’s really, uhm, funny.” No it’s not.